Table of Contents Table of Contents Color Inserts Title Page Copyrights and Credits Table of Contents Page Chapter 1: Someone Notices Something Amiss Chapter 2: At the Bottom of the Ravine of the Earthwyrm Chapter 3: A Shot at Victory Chapter 4: The Mad Dog King vs. the Former Sword God Chapter 5: Kalman III vs. Kalman II and Co. Chapter 6: Kalman III vs. Dead End and Co. Chapter 7: Alexander vs. Rudeus Chapter 8: Rest Chapter 9: Making Peace with the Ogre God Interlude: The Armor Interlude: I Wanted to Be a Hero Character Designs About the Author Newsletter
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Chapter 1: Someone Notices Something Amiss IN A SMALL TAVERN tucked away in the Second City of Irelil, the second largest city in the Biheiril Kingdom, Sandor von Grandour and a young man were having a drink. “…So, you’re saying the monkey-faced demon left the Second City of Irelil for the capital, then vanished?” “Yeah. His mug’s supposed to be unique, so I reckon it’s true.” “After that?” “I dunno… Hey, I swear I don’t know any more than that! I’m just speculatin’, but I reckon he caught wind that you was after him and did a quick vanishing act.” The informant speaking to Sandor was little more than a boy, but that boy knew more rumors of the Biheiril Kingdom than anyone else. Either he was older than he looked, or he was a pawn of the real information broker. “Hey, mister,” said the boy abruptly, “I’ve got a juicy story—only it’ll cost you extra.” Sandor pulled a silver coin out of his pocket and clunked it down in front of the boy, who scooped it up quickly into his pocket. “You hear about the devils in the forest?” he asked. “Devils?” “Yeah, you know the ones. Turns out, they’re them Superd. Some foreign adventurer made ’em angry, so they slaughtered a whole village.” “Gosh. Nasty people who’ve moved in,” Sandor said. “They say the kingdom’s gonna send out a hunting party any day now. I hear tell the forest devils make invisible beasts fight for ’em, so who knows how bad the fallout’ll be…” The remainder of the boy’s story was made up of extremely exaggerated rumors. There was nothing to confirm it for sure, but it sounded like gossip someone might spread on purpose. That someone was obviously Geese. Page 1 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“Anyway, point is, right now they’re recruiting for the hunting party, so I figure that monkey-faced demon what you been looking for might be hiding in their ranks.” “I see,” Sandor said. “You’ve given me a lot to go on. Cheers.” He paid the informant another copper coin, then exited the tavern. Outside, night had fallen completely. It was mostly quiet around the backstreet tavern, but he could hear a commotion. “I want to get this information to Rudeus as fast as possible,” Sandor murmured, “but it’s late.” His words melted into the empty night. According to the plan, Rudeus was supposed to have come back to town that day with the two soldiers. He’d rendezvous with Sandor in the Second City of Irelil, then they’d go on together to the capital of Biheiril to conduct negotiations. The sun had long set, and Rudeus had not returned. If that were all, Sandor wouldn’t have worried. He’d have assumed that, Rudeus being who he was, he’d simply gotten carried away talking up the Superd Village to the soldiers. “First things first, let’s let the Dragon God know.” Sandor went back to his room to share his information. He had a contact tablet in his room. If he used it to get in touch with the others, they might know the source of the rumors and what was delaying Rudeus. Dear me. What modern conveniences. Or rather, I suppose that’s the power of the Dragon God. He turned his gaze to the contact tablet. “Eh?” The other day, when Rudeus had used it, the tablet had emitted a constant blue glow. Now it looked like an ordinary lump of rock and nothing more. “…Are you broken?” Sandor gave the tablet a casual rap with his fist, and the part he’d touched just crumbled away. “Whoa, now…” he said, as his inner voice immediately cried, I broke it! It had gone dim at some point before he got back, so he chose to believe that it had already been fragile. “This is a pickle, though…” he muttered. Sandor was confident in handling magical implements. In his life thus far, he was proud to say he’d handled more than your average number of them. He’d also broken more than your average number, and he was not confident in his ability to fix them. “Hmm.” If he couldn’t fix it, he couldn’t confirm his information. He Page 2 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
worried over this for a few seconds, then made up his mind. “Guess I’ll head back.” Perhaps it was different for other people, but he knew that if he were left to his own devices, it wouldn’t lead to anything good. He turned to the teleportation circle. But— In that basement, Sandor looked in silence at the teleportation circle. It should have been ready to use, but it wasn’t glowing. Sandor’s alarm bells rang louder. His magic communication implement was broken, and now his magical means of transportation was out of operation. Sandor was an experienced warrior, so he sensed when he was in a trap. This was a perfectly crafted dead end—a cramped basement with nowhere to run. It was a location begging for a surprise attack. His extensive fighting experience brought him visions of enemies blowing up the upper floor and burying him alive… But no, they would have blown it up by now if that were the plan. His foe must want to do it with their own hands to ensure he was dead. “How about you show yourself already?” he said, turning to the entrance to the basement. Their plan was probably to lie in wait at the exit until Sandor panicked and tried to leave, then stab—knife in the back. Sandor was used to surprise attacks. He put on a brash voice and said, “I know you’re there.” He pointed his weapon—a staff—at the exit. He hadn’t sensed anything, but he figured he ought to expect as much from someone who’d come to kill him. He waited. There was no response. Foolish of them, when he’d already found them out. Sandor snorted, then walked forward with a light step, like he was going for a nice walk. Anyone who knew what to look for would get chills seeing that power walk. Thus Sandor left the basement, casting his gaze about to catch the moment the attack came. Whenever it happened, he would be ready. He kept it up all the way outside. There, a battalion of soldiers lying in wait for him…was nowhere to be found. The street was deserted. When Sandor emerged with his staff readied for combat, a passerby shot him a suspicious look. He set off down the street. He cut a suspicious figure with his staff still gripped in his hands; a buzz of interest swept over the townsfolk. Sandor paid them no attention. That was how he strode through the town gates and out of the town. Seeing from his movements that he was no ordinary passerby, the guards let him get out of town without impeding his departure. Perhaps if he had tried to enter the town from the outside, they would have moved to stop him, but there Page 3 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
was no need to call out to someone who was leaving. Sandor got out safely. Even then, he didn’t lower his staff. He walked until he could no longer see the walls of the town. When he arrived at an empty plain with good visibility, he let his guard down at last, and without a moment of hesitation, he set off running. He was heading for the Superd village. Something was terribly wrong. If he wasn’t the target, someone else was. “…I really did think someone was there,” he said to himself. As he remembered what he’d said back in the basement, he went a little pink. *** Sandor made haste to the forest of the Superd village and didn’t stop at any towns or villages on the way. He hadn’t been attacked back at the teleportation circle, but he was on his guard against an ambush. Whether he was deterring his would-be attackers or there just hadn’t been any assailants in the first place, he couldn’t say, but his journey passed without incident. He exited the forest and approached the ravine. When he went to cross the shudderinducing depths, Sandor suddenly realized something was wrong. “There’s no bridge…?” The stone bridge that Rudeus had built had collapsed partway in. It had looked extremely sturdy, but he supposed it had only been a makeshift thing built with magic in the end. Sandor didn’t know much about magic, but he vaguely knew that this sort of dashed-off magic bridge was prone to collapsing. It didn’t strike him as odd. What caught his notice was the original bridge next to the broken one. There was something on the ground near it: the scabbard of a sword. If his memory served, it was the one the regular soldiers of the Biheiril Army carried. “…What’s this doing here?” he wondered aloud, his alarm bubbling up once again. He knew his own instincts well enough that when something felt wrong, he wasn’t imagining it. Of course there were times he read too much into things, but still, he could trust his gut. Looking around the bridge to ensure he was alone, he slowly began to cross it until, when he was partway across, he was greeted by a familiar sight. Splotched, black stains. Bloodstains. He couldn’t tell whose, but judging by the color, they were likely human. The blood appeared to have come flying from the broken stone bridge. Page 4 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
The bridge had collapsed. There was a scabbard lying near the original bridge. Sandor furrowed his brow as he pieced together a theory. “Does that mean Rudeus and the soldiers were attacked on the bridge?” He set off sprinting. He was across the bridge in a moment, safe on the opposite side. He’d feared attackers hemming him in on the middle of the bridge, but even now that he was on the other side, no attack came. At the end of the bridge, he kept his staff raised for a few seconds, looking for danger. When he knew there was nothing coming, he set off running again. As Sandor approached the Superd village, he entered stealth mode. From afar, he confirmed that no enemy was occupying the village…and then some Superd warriors came out from the village to greet him. He confirmed he wasn’t a threat, and thus they ambled back to the village. Sandor headed for the residence of the warrior who—though still recovering from illness—he could trust most. “Master Ruijerd!” Ruijerd was eating with Rudeus’s younger sister, Norn, but when Sandor came running in he stood up at once, ready to fight. It was the kind of quick shift you only saw in a legendary hero. Sandor felt his heart flutter. “What happened?” “Where is Master Rudeus?” he asked. “He left the village with his soldier escort a few days back.” That was where it hit Sandor. “I think someone—maybe from the Second City, maybe the Earthwyrm Ravine Village—attacked him on the bridge! Rudeus is missing! Form a search party!” “Understood!” Ruijerd picked up his spear and ran out of the house. “Huh…?!” Norn gaped. “Huh…?!” She hadn’t followed the conversation and gaped in bewilderment and alarm. Sandor smiled kindly at her. “Fear not, Miss Norn,” he told the confused girl. “Your brother is the right hand of the Dragon God. He won’t go down easily. You can count on that. I’m sure he survived the attack and he’s hiding out somewhere. Have no doubt that I will save him!” “Uh—um, okay.” Page 5 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
With that, Sandor ran to the village square where Ruijerd, who worked fast, had assembled five warriors. “We’re ready to go.” “Then let us be off.” The warriors, like Norn, couldn’t conceal their confusion, but their quick response showed their training. They followed Sandor without a single objection. They ran through the forest. A few Invisible Wolves crossed their path along the way, but the Superd warriors put them down with ease, as though they were brushing aside branches. In no time, they arrived at the ravine. When Ruijerd saw the unremarkable stone bridge Rudeus had made, his brow furrowed. “There are signs of a fight. The bridge has collapsed.” Trust a legendary warrior to see all that at a glance, Sandor thought, his heart fluttering again. Suddenly, Ruijerd’s eyes went wide, and he ran out onto the bridge. That was where the specks of blood Sandor had seen were. “This is Rudeus’s blood,” Ruijerd said. “So he was attacked here?” Ruijerd didn’t reply, only went further down the bridge toward the side leading to the Earthwyrm Village. When he reached the end, he knelt and stared intently at the ground. “Rudeus’s footprints aren’t here,” he said. Sandor automatically looked into the ravine. There’d been an attack on the bridge, and now on the other side, there were two sets of footprints, neither of them Rudeus’s. Which meant… “He was killed and thrown off?” Sandor asked. Ruijerd was silent, but from his grave expression, he guessed the likelihood was high. Even supposing Rudeus wasn’t dead, the ravine beneath them was teeming with Earth Dragons. Rudeus was a powerful magician, but even he couldn’t make it out of such a place alone. Sandor was deliberating on what to do when suddenly, Ruijerd crouched down at the edge of the precipice and began lowering his legs over it. “What do you think you’re doing?” Sandor asked. Page 6 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“That’s obvious.” “…I know how you feel, but if we go into the ravine with this lineup, we’re not coming back out.” Ruijerd might be a legendary warrior, but down at the bottom of the ravine was an Earth Dragon den. They would end up in grave peril if they went, and that was a guarantee. They’d be throwing away their lives for nothing. “Then what should we do?!” Ruijerd demanded. Sandor pondered this. It was a tricky situation, no mistake. In the first place, they didn’t know for certain that Rudeus had fallen into the ravine. They couldn’t even rule out the possibility that the other two had set off for the village carrying him, slight though that possibility was. “…Oh.” That was when Sandor remembered something. He’d set up insurance so that this wouldn’t happen. “How many sets of footprints were there on the way to the bridge?” he asked. Ruijerd glared, as though angry at the irrelevant question, but he answered. “Four.” Sandor looked around at their surroundings. He saw only empty forest. No trees had fallen, nor was the earth torn asunder. It was peaceful. Having confirmed this, he set off running. He was heading for the end of the bridge. The side that led to the valley village. There, Sandor turned his attention to the ground. He saw a single footprint. It was a distinctive one, larger than that of an ordinary man, but not outside the mold of a human. He turned back to Ruijerd. “Confirm this for me again. You only found Master Rudeus’s blood, correct?” “Yes.” “Well, that’s all right, then,” Sandor said decisively. “What?” “Let’s leave Master Rudeus for the moment,” Sandor said. “I expect our enemies are on their way.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than Ruijerd seized him by the collar. “You mean to abandon Rudeus?” he demanded. “I do not,” Sandor replied calmly. “I give you my absolute guarantee that Master Rudeus will return to us.” His words were full of a conviction that made Page 7 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
them strangely persuasive. Ruijerd was still confused, but he slowly released Sandor. Page 8 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Chapter 2: At the Bottom of the Ravine of the Earthwyrm WHEN I WOKE UP, I was in a white place. My body had reverted to the way it was in my past life, a realization that washed over me with a sense of powerlessness. I hadn’t felt that in a long time. With it, the feeling of defeat. I’d lost. Ruijerd had been the bait, and I’d fallen for it. After beating Vita, I’d let my guard down and contacted the Biheiril Kingdom, which let Geese know where I was. I’d ended up rolling out the welcome mat for the former Sword God and the North God. Thus I’d wound up in that mess alone, with enemies on both sides. It made me sigh just thinking about it. Geese had been watching closely. I hadn’t expected to lose the use of all my magic once my arms were cut off at the root. He’d chosen the location perfectly, too. Naturally, I couldn’t summon the Version One on the bridge. He must have decided in advance to force the fight in a location like that. Thanks to the system Roxy built, I didn’t need to draw out a magic circle anymore, but Geese didn’t know that… Well, those two weren’t about to lose to me in the Version Two. It looked like they hadn’t anticipated that the bridge couldn’t withstand the updated Version Two stamping down on it. I suppose there had been an escape route— below me. So where was Geese? Had he disguised himself as the king of the Biheiril Kingdom? The voice had been different…but we’re talking about Geese here. Imitating a voice was within his abilities. Besides, it’d be a piece of cake with the Man-God’s assistance. Wait a minute, though. Sandor was suspicious too. His voice and face and physique didn’t resemble Geese, but with a magical implement, or a magic item, he could have changed those. Maybe he’d infiltrated the Asuran Kingdom from the start and tied up the leader of the golden knights or something. The dude was good at getting information—too good—so it was very possible. Man, it felt like there’d been a lot of these machinations lately. It was the same with Abyssal King Vita using dreams to mount a psychological attack. Whoa, are you actually a slime creature? I bet that pixelation filter isn’t to hide your identity. You were actually a slime all this time! Page 9 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
No reply. Asshole! I’m talking to you. Say something. I look like a dumbass talking to myself. Now that I’ve lost, you could at least show up to gloat while revealing your plans. That’s what the bad guy does, so go for it. Tap me on the shoulder and say, “Nice try, but I win. Too bad, eh? Hur hur.” Why was he waiting? My fists wanted a final word, at least. “…Go die in a hole.” Already did. So what’s the story, Man-God baby? Your pixelated mosaic filter’s not working so well. Feeling down? “Every time you do something, my future changes.” Yeah. That’s the idea. “I can always see my own future. I can see all the way into my future.” Yep, I know. You have future vision. For three people at max, right…huh? Does that include you? Can your third disciple even see their own future? “Three? I can see more than that. I just can’t take my eyes off my own future. That’s why only three.” Meaning…it takes most of your power to see your own future? “It’s like my future was red. There was a moment where it went dark.” Whatever. Paint it black. “At first, it was just Orsted. Orsted’s nothing. He’s not my enemy. I’d never lose to such a simple-minded moron.” Moron…? Okay, Orsted is a bit thick sometimes. Like when he didn’t say anything about the Superd… Not that I’m one to talk. “In that moment, a man appeared beside Orsted. A man I didn’t know. Total blank. I think he wasn’t of this world. Since then, things have gotten a little darker.” Ohh. Are you talking about Nanahoshi’s boyfriend? What’s his name again? “They soon increased. A girl. Since then, my future has been dark and quiet. Every time you do something, Orsted’s allies increase. Every time, my future grew darker. Now, it’s all black.” Cool. So what I’ve been doing wasn’t for nothing. Page 10 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“Oh, it was. I’ll make it nothing.” That’s nasty. Whatever. If I’m already dead, nothing I can do about it. “If you die, there’s still time. This created future only came about because of one guy. I can overturn it by killing humans with strong fates. That’s what I’ve done all this time.” Do you want me to beg for my life…? Press my head to the ground and plead, “Please, just spare my family!” Probably impossible at this stage, though, given the circumstances. “Just die. Die, die.” “Die, die.” What are you, eight years old? “Die in hell, Rudeus.” Listen to me, damn it! *** My eyes opened. I felt terrible. Having someone tell you to go die to your face like that really puts you in a rotten mood. Still, for all that he’d told me to “go die,” he hadn’t said, “I’m gonna kill you.” There’s a lesson in there about how the Man-God relies on people, or…something. He didn’t do his own dirty work; all he did was issue orders from on high. Bastard. Anyway. “So I’m alive,” I said. I’d thought I was dead for sure. The Upgraded Magic Armor Version Two was extremely tough, but I was still flesh and blood. I’d blacked out. Jeez, that height. No way could my body have survived the shock of that fall, yet here I was, awake, so I must have survived. Had something cushioned my fall? It didn’t look like there were any trees down here… Anyway, thank you, Dada Paul and Mama Zenith, for making such a sturdy son. “Ngh.” I sat up. It was dim around me. Maybe a cave. Something felt weird. Just now, when I’d sat up. What did I do that with? I tensed my core muscles, then pushed up on my elbow… “Huh? I have arms.” Page 11 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
For some reason, my arms, which I was pretty sure Gall Falion had sliced off, were stuck to my shoulders. I don’t have a self-healing function as far as I know… I thought, staring at my hands. “Whoa! What the hell…” My hands were black, a lustrous jet black, like obsidian. They moved without any issue, and it felt like all the nerve endings were intact. I ran my eyes along them. The black limbs were affixed to my shoulders like plants rooted in soil. It was a bit icky. Also, someone had taken me out of the Magic Armor Updated Version Two. The leg sections were gone too. I was down to my undies. My body was wrapped in bandages with blood seeping out the sides. I’d been given first aid. That meant whoever saved me couldn’t use healing magic. I also had this person to thank for the arms…maybe? “…Ah.” I looked around and saw my clothes in a folded pile. On top of them, if you’ll believe it, someone had tossed a severed arm. Freshly decap—or de-arm-itated, even. Oh. I guess that was my arm. I could see the Dragon God’s bracelet on it. “Ow…” When I dragged myself over to my arm, my body was rocked by a wave of pain. I said a quick healing spell to close my wounds, then took the bracelet from my severed arm and put it around my new black arm. It…was working, right? “Where am I?” I said out loud, tentatively standing up and producing a flame in my palm to illuminate my surroundings. I was in a space about five by four meters. The walls were earth. Going from the presence of a ceiling, I was in a cave, just like I’d thought. Some sort of fabric was spread out at the back of the cave, and I’d been laid down on top of it. That fabric… Was it a cloak? First, I headed for the cave entrance to ascertain my location. The cave curved, but I quickly saw light. That was the exit. Someone was standing there. Someone with massively broad shoulders and armor to match. As I drew near, he turned around slowly and raised the visor of his helm. A familiar face appeared in the opening. “Dohga…” I said. “Uh-huh.” “You saved me?” “I saw the bridge fall. Jumped in, right away. You were unconscious. Tried to carry you, but the armor was heavy. I took it off. Brought you here. Page 12 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Bound your wounds.” Dohga had saved me. He’d jumped down to the bottom of this ravine… Oof. I’m sorry, Dohga, for saying that you didn’t have any presence and you were useless… “Well, thank you. You saved my life. I’m sorry for going off alone. I should have been more careful.” “…Mm. Sandor’s orders,” Dohga said with a weak smile. Even if he was just doing what he was told this whole time, Dohga had been looking out for me. What a good guy. I was the moron here, thinking I’d been looking out for those two soldiers. “Were these arms you too?” I asked, holding up my onyx-black arms. Dohga shook his head. “When I found you, you were like…a cocoon. I opened it. The cocoon turned into arms.” Huh? I was a cocoon, and then the cocoon turned into arms? If the arms were the cocoon, what the hell was the cocoon? Was I carrying something that’d make arms attach to me? I looked at my arms. Dohga looked apologetic. “I found one real arm. I looked. But no other arm. Might have gotten eaten. I’m sorry.” “Oh no. Don’t sweat it.” I could grow it back with healing magic…if the black ones came off, that is. “Where are we?” I asked. “Bottom of the ravine. The most deepest bit.” “Right… How much time has passed?” “Dunno. No sun here. Two or three days, I think.” Dohga moved to one side and light hit my eyes. It was faint and dim, bluish in hue. What looked like glowing moss and mushrooms were growing thickly outside the cave, illuminating the surrounding area. That wasn’t all I saw, though. Outside the cave, blocking the entrance, were three corpses. They were animals with carapaces like dinosaurs. Earth Dragons. Three whole Earth Dragons lay there, dead. “…Did you do this?” I asked. “Uh-huh. To protect Rudeus.” I noticed there was scarlet blood smeared on Dohga’s greataxe. Earth Dragon blood, I guess. Page 13 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Had he seriously taken them down alone? Way to go, Dohga! I might have underestimated him a tiny bit. The North God Kalman had said as much, actually. “You’re a North Emperor, is that right?” “Uh-huh. Still learning. Master says I kill monsters good.” All right, what dumbass said Dohga was useless? Ariel sent a fighter who knows his business! Fine, it was me, I’m sorry. I underestimated him! “Right…” I said. “You’re really something.” “Uh-huh.” He smiled happily at my praise. If Dohga’s a North Emperor… “What about Sandor?” I asked. There was a long pause, and then he said, “…I can’t say.” “Right.” Never mind. I had a hunch. I’d grill him when I got back. “All right. We should get out of here.” Before anything else, we had to get back. The former Sword God… No, Gall Falion might not be Sword God anymore, but his abilities were intact. I’d keep calling him Sword God. I mean, there were second and third North Gods, and besides, it wasn’t like someone would arrest me for thinking of him as a Sword God. So…the Sword God and the North God. My enemies were powerful, and they were in disguise. It was possible no one knew they’d tried to take me out yet. If they really wanted to hurt me, then a hunting party would be coming to destroy the Superd Village. We could handle the hunting party, even if they came in hundreds, but it was a different story if those two hid inside the crowd. I had to stop them. “…First, take me to where I fell. I want to get my armor. There might still be some usable scrolls, too.” “Uh-huh,” Dohga agreed. He set off walking, and I followed his sturdy and reliable figure. *** Page 14 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
We reached the Magic Armor relatively quickly, killing two Earth Dragons along the way. Dohga took them both down in one hit. Yeah, one. Hit. He stood his ground as the Earth Dragon rushed him, then with one swing of his massive axe, its head went flying off. Now that was a guy you could count on. Thinking back to the fight with the Invisible Wolves, he seemed to be weak to sneak attacks, but he couldn’t be bested in a battle of sheer strength. While Dohga was in great shape… “Hmm…” The Magic Armor was deeply cut up. The Scroll Vernier on the back was ruined, the bundle of scrolls cut clean in two. Not only that, but my blood must have splattered inside the vernier—it was all clogged up. It was useless like this. I guess even the Magic Armor couldn’t protect you when up against Sword God-level enemies. The sword must have been fragile. It had punctured through the armor, then snapped in half. From the blade fragment, it didn’t look like anything special. Gall Falion was supposed to have lots of magic swords, but he must have left them behind so he’d blend in. If he’d brought a thing like that, Orsted or Cliff would have picked up on it. If he’d had his own sword, the armor wouldn’t have stopped it. I’d have been cut in half. That wasn’t a pleasant thought… “This is useless now,” I said. It looked like I had no choice but to throw away the Scroll Vernier Roxy had made for me. After she’d worked so hard on it… I’ll come back and get it later. The armor itself would still move, though. It wasn’t in perfect shape, but it still had one of the arm parts, and the leg parts were undamaged. Even so, not being able to use the summoning scrolls was a blow. I’d be no match for those two without the Magic Armor Version One. When we got back to the Superd Village, I’d have to pop back to the office straight away and bring back the spare. Well, I would if I had that sort of time. “…Huh?” When I detached the scroll vernier from the Magic Armor, the sword tip impaling it fell to the ground, and with it, a scroll. Except it wasn’t a scroll. It was a box. There’d happened to be space inside the vernier, so I’d stored that box in it. It was about the size of a dictionary and engraved with devilish patterns. The kind of box that curses you Page 15 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
when you open it. “The box I got from Atofe…” This was the box I’d been told to open if I found myself in a desperate situation. It was when the sword hit this box that it had snapped. I could see the weak indent the blade had left in it. Hesitantly, I opened the box and looked inside. There was nothing there. It was empty. Wait. There was something written on the inside of the lid. This black flesh is an offshoot of Immortal Demon King Atofe. When in peril, release it and it shall protect you. Wield with care. Black flesh… I thought, looking at my arm. …Is that what this arm is? I was pretty sure I hadn’t opened it, but maybe Gall Falion’s attack had put a crack in it, and it had sensed that I was in danger, protected me from the fall, then parasitized my arm and staunched the bleeding…something like that? Yeah, that had to be it. Facing east, I kowtowed. I thanked the violent demon king from the bottom of my heart. “Lady Atofe…” I said aloud, “thank you!” No one replied. Atofe would still be on her way, but if we saw each other, I’d give her a nice bottle of something. What was that wine with the dumb name? “Right, let’s get back,” I said. The fight was approaching. I had to get home fast. *** Or at least, that was my big plan. It turned out we couldn’t climb the cliff face. I used earth magic to climb a bit of the way, but we left the area with the luminous mushrooms and moss and everything went totally dark. While we were engulfed in that darkness, what should attack us but a swarm of Earth Dragons? The footholds I’d made with earth magic were unstable, and then in the darkness, more than ten Earth Dragons jumped on us like geckos. One after another, they came at us from either side. They were so massive that we had no choice but to retreat. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they used magic. Why wouldn’t they? Come on! Earth Lances stabbed out from above, below, left, right, and even from the wall itself. Absolute nightmare. Ugh. Dragons! “Phew…” Page 16 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
I tried all sorts of things. I tried to use a catapult to launch us to the top in one go. I tried using earth magic to hide us while we climbed. Whatever I did, the Earth Dragons messed it up. They intercepted us mid-flight in our catapult launch and found us through my stealth magic. They were unexpectedly clever and relentless. Once they locked on, they chased us until we retreated to the spot where the mushrooms and moss grew. They didn’t seem to like places like that. Maybe it was the mushrooms, or maybe they didn’t see this area as their territory. A few did still pursue us down there, so it wasn’t like they were physically incapable. “What to do…” I wondered. “You know, Dohga, I’m impressed you made it down here.” “…Uh-huh. Not many attacked on the way down.” “Huh… Ah, hang on. That makes sense.” Earth Dragons’ senses were dull to anything above them but alert to anything below. I knew that, but this was the first time I’d seen it in action. It was relentless, like how a rooster goes on the attack when it spies an enemy. I considered resorting to area-of-effect magic to blast them all away, but all that would do was get us buried in the rubble. The ravine was wide and deep, and the Earth Dragons could use earth magic. Even if I took out dozens, it wouldn’t make a dent in their numbers. I didn’t want to use a huge amount of magic unnecessarily when the fight with Kalman and Gall Falion was still to come. Ugh, I was dithering. Meanwhile, their assassins’ blades might be bearing down on the Superd Village. They could easily turn those blades in other directions too. Zanoba’s location would be exposed at minimum. They might have already got to him. I was itching to get going…but I had to slow down. Rushing wouldn’t make anything better. For some reason, when I looked with the Eye of Distant Sight, the Earth Dragons were still watching us after we’d climbed back down. “Let’s see if there’s somewhere with fewer Earth Dragons, yeah?” I suggested. “…Uh-huh.” With that, we started walking, our path illuminated by the mushrooms and moss. It wasn’t only Earth Dragons that attacked us. We had to contend with bugs as big as people that looked like praying mantises and centipedes. Perhaps the Earth Dragons survived by eating the bugs. An Earth Dragon had grabbed a Page 17 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
bug in its jaws right in front of us before clambering off up the cliff. The body of another Earth Dragon came tumbling down—I suppose it died up on the cliff wall?—and got swarmed by bugs. Their prey was down here, and it was rare that anything came from above. It made sense that the Earth Dragons only paid attention to things below them. There was an odd food chain specific to this ravine. Something occurred to me as we walked. “This path is easy to walk on, huh?” I said. The path along the bottom of the ravine was unexpectedly smooth. Some areas were blocked off by huge mushrooms or rocks that must have fallen from above, but it was very flat and easy to navigate. I felt like I’d walked a similar path before. “…Uh-huh. Red Wyrm Jaw’s the same.” “Ohh!” That place! The site of Orsted’s heartwarming, awful memories! It did feel the same as Red Wyrm’s Upper and Lower Jaws, as well as the road to the Sword Sanctum. The mushrooms and fallen rocks made it hard to tell, but those places had felt like this. “Does that mean someone made this…?” There weren’t any monsters on that road. That meant someone had made this path, then called the Earth Dragons… Just a second. Hadn’t it been Laplace who’d called dragons to the central continent? Laplace could have made this path, too. Why? I had no way of knowing. I was looking for a place to climb up, not for the answer to a historical mystery. There might be a spot with rocky terrain that prevented the Earth Dragons from nesting there. I’d been looking up with the Eye of Distant Sight for a little while now, but the walls of the ravine were so full of holes, I worried about their structural integrity. It was like a city of skyscrapers crammed together without gaps. There wasn’t an Earth Dragon living in every hole, but it was damn close to it. A thousand, maybe two. It was the ones living at the bottom that mostly came down to look for food. I didn’t think there was enough food down here to support such a large number of Earth Dragons, but in this world, it wasn’t unusual to see monsters in numbers that didn’t line up with the amount of prey on offer. …What if I can use that info to climb to the top of the ravine? But how, Page 18 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
exactly? Come on, brain! It was such a pain getting out after falling in. I had been told not to fall into the Ravine of the Earthwyrm. But did I listen? Noooo… “Rudeus.” “Hm? Enemies?” I readied myself for another bug or something to pop up, but Dohga was pointing straight off to one side. There was nothing but a wall there. Wait—not nothing. It was in the shadow of a mushroom, which made it hard to see, but there was a hole. There were holes here and there around the bottom of the ravine, but this hole was a bit different from the others because of the stairs. It had a staircase! It led downward. We’re supposed to go down from here? Then— “Uh?” The next second, my arm moved of its own accord. My right hand pointed at the hole. Like it was telling me to go in. “Lady Atofe, is this the exit…?” Atofe’s offshoot didn’t speak, but the arm went on pointing. “I guess it is.” It didn’t look like we were going to find a place we could climb up no matter how far we walked. The ravine didn’t go on forever, but even if we pressed on for ages, we’d probably just hit a dead end. Turning back to search the other direction would take time too. I might as well investigate everything that caught my notice on the way. “Shall we see what’s down there?” “Mm-hmm.” Dohga agreed without hesitation. Maybe he sensed something when he looked at the staircase too. So we set off, down into the dark. *** At the bottom of the stairs was a massive altar. Massive altar… How else can I describe it? It was in a vast space smothered with mushrooms and moss supported by two pillars decorated with engravings. There was a dais of quarried stone, and Page 19 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
the wall behind it was adorned with a finely engraved fresco. The thing it depicted might have been a dragon. There were a whole lot of different things crammed into the design, but it was hard to tell in the gloom. Still, I had the feeling I’d seen something like it before. Now, where was that—oh. “Is this a ruin left behind by the Dragon Clan…?” I asked out loud. Yeah, that was it. This place looked a lot like the teleportation ruins. What’s more, these carvings looked like things I’d seen at the floating fortress. That meant there might be teleportation ruins here. Even if there were, could I count on them? Where was I going to go, hopping on a teleportation circle that led to who knew where? I just wanted to go straight up. Hold on, don’t jump to conclusions yet. As far as I could see, there were no rooms other than this one with the altar. The Atofe Hand wasn’t pointing that way—it was pointing toward the fresco, and a small stone shelf below it. Scratch that, the shelf only looked small because the fresco was so big. It wasn’t small at all. Atofe’s hand was pointing that way. Atofe’s face appeared in my mind’s eye. Could I really follow the lead of a demon king with that awful face? Uncertainty grabbed at me for a second, but my legs were already moving. With the Atofe Hand still pointing, I went over to the shelf. On it, there were several bottles, cloudy and with open lids. There was also a cloudy crystal ball set into the shelf. “There’d better not be booze in these,” I muttered, picking up a bottle. It was engraved with a dragon pattern. I bet if I showed it to Zanoba, he’d be able to tell me how much it was worth. Oh, and it was empty. “Okay… What do I do with this?” I asked the Atofe Hand. It didn’t reply. Instead, it reached out. It went straight past the bottles for the cloudy crystal. It rested on top of the crystal ball, and with that, control returned to me. What’s this about? I wondered. What was it telling me to do? I had bottles and a crystal and an altar. It was like an adventure-game puzzle. In which case, I’d like a hint. Page 20 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
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“Rudeus. There.” Dohga, now standing behind me, was pointing at something above my head. I looked up and saw a blue glow coming from the top of the great pillars holding up the altar. No, that wasn’t right. The pillars weren’t glowing—something that glowed blue was seeping down from above them. This crystal sphere—or the whole altar, I guess—was a magical implement. A magical implement that leaked blue water. Only, looking at the light, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the moss and mushrooms around us. “Okay, so what’s the deal with the water?” I wondered if I was supposed to drink it, though the color didn’t look healthy… Except there were bottles here, so maybe I had to use the water somewhere. Maybe I filled the bottles with the water, then poured them out into some contraption, then the contraption would move, and a door would open, and I’d get a legendary sword. Too bad I didn’t need one of those right now. “This, maybe?” Dohga was pointing at the fresco. There was a huge image there depicting people and Earth Dragons. Maybe it was set up so that the blue water flowed out when you moved the crystal sphere and activated the magical implement—the blue light threw the whole picture into relief, showing the river of blue water. At the top was the altar and a person was collecting the blue water that came from it in a bottle. Then, the person with the bottle poured it on the people around them, and they all picked up swords and spears and went after the Earth Dragons. They were hunting them. Well, based on a quick look at the fresco, this water had to help with hunting Earth Dragons. There were letters written in the corner of the picture too, but I couldn’t read them. They looked a little different from the dragon writing I’d seen. “Oh, hold on…” Something had occurred to me. The Earth Dragons didn’t come down to the floor of the Ravine. We had blue moss, blue mushrooms, and now blue water. Maybe people had lived here once, and those people had used the blue water to drive off the Earth Dragons, who didn’t like some substance in the water. That same substance was in the blue moss and mushrooms. Plus, looking at the fresco, the people attacked the Earth Dragons from behind and went in on an angle from beneath them. From beneath, even though the Earth Dragons were primed to notice that…Was it possible the dragons couldn’t see them? They couldn’t see the things that gave off this blue light? That would Page 22 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
explain why they rarely came down to the ravine floor. So, maybe, if we poured this over our bodies, they wouldn’t see us? I turned back to Dohga and asked, “…Want to try it?” I didn’t explain what I meant. But Dohga grunted, “Uh-huh,” like it was obvious. *** Not long after, we stood at the top of the ravine. We’d escaped. We’d escaped the Ravine of the Earthwyrm. “Ahh, it feels good to be a free man.” We’d left the cave covered from head to toe in the blue water. Then, I made an elevator with earth magic and lifted us up slowly. I kept it slow because I was worried the Earth Dragons might notice us if I went too fast. I was right. The Earth Dragons looked at us, but they didn’t react. Either they couldn’t see us, or we didn’t register as food. They just stayed stuck to the cliff walls, pushing up against one another and not moving. It was barely an hour after that when, after slowly elevating us, I saw the dark sky. It was nighttime. We stepped off at the edge of the ravine. For some reason, the moonlight was making me emotional. “We did it,” I said, slapping Dohga on the back. “Uh-huh!” He nodded happily. It had taken a little while, but we’d escaped. Now we had to get back to the Superd Village right away and tell them about the two soldiers. Page 23 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Chapter 3: A Shot at Victory A HEATED DEBATE was underway when I got back. “Our foe is at our gates. We must get ready.” “So we should go and search for Rudeus first!” The second person yelling was Eris, and she was arguing with Sandor. Roxy was there too. “Dohga is with him. They’ll make it back eventually. In the meantime, we need to organize our forces, and set our trap…” “Like that blockhead will be any help!” “He’s more capable than you think.” “Well, if we’re talking about capable, how come you weren’t with him?!” “Hmph… Well that’s…” Next, the big question: would they come to my rescue, or assume I’d make it back on my own and engage the enemy? Eris was arguing in favor of rescuing me. I appreciated that. “Whatever, I’ll go down myself!” Without standing on ceremony, Eris rose and spun on her heel. That was when our eyes met. “If you’re heading down, I’d recommend going down to the altar using the staircase in the shadow of the mushroom and getting the blue water,” I said. “Rudeus!” Eris responded to my helpful puzzle walkthrough by throwing her arms around me. Ow, ow. You’re gonna snap my spine. “I was worried about you!” “I’m sorry.” Roxy and the others all looked relieved I was alive. Lucky, lucky me! “…By the way, what’s with the arm?” Page 24 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“Oh, this… Look, I’ll explain everything at once. Only, before that…” I looked around until my gaze came to rest on one man sitting there. “You. Who are you?” I demanded, staring down Sandor. *** North God Kalman II, Alex Rybak. The protagonist of The Epic of the North God, who defeated the Monarch of the King Dragons, slew a giant behemoth, achieved numerous glorious feats on battlefields around the world, and eventually became one of the Seven Great Powers. He was the greatest practitioner of North God Style, and until a mere hundred years ago was regarded as the greatest swordsman in the world. That was how Sandor introduced himself. To tell the truth, I wasn’t that surprised. Part of me wondered what a guy like that was doing here, but mostly, it made sense. It made sense why Orsted had put him with me but not told me why. Why Ariel had sent him over the heads of Ghislaine and Isolde. Why Dohga was a North Emperor. He was North God Kalman II. It made sense. “Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked him. “Just in case… The Man-God can see into peoples’ hearts, but if no one on our side knew I was Kalman, I could conceal my presence. It made it easier to move too.” Fair enough. Pretty sure everything I know got leaked to the Man-God when I fell into the ravine, though. He wouldn’t know Kalman was on my team because I didn’t know it either…but then, if he could see into Sandor’s heart or Dohga’s, did that even matter? “…Really?” I asked. “Well, to be honest, I kind of thought it’d be cool if I revealed my true identity at a crucial moment.” “Oh, granted. Of course.” People trip over themselves to look cool, yeah. Happens all the time. “Wasn’t it futile after it came out that Dohga was a North Emperor?” “I suppose… Though Dohga isn’t an especially well-known North Page 25 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Emperor.” If I’d known the two of them were powerful warriors, I’d have tried to conceal them. Except if I’d done that, maybe everything would have gone even worse. “Well, anyway. I’ll be counting on you from here on out, Alex.” “Naturally. Only please keep calling me Sandor. That’s the name I go by these days.” After confirming Sandor’s identity, we moved on to putting together all our information. Ten days earlier, I’d brought the Sword God Gall Falion and North God Kalman III to the village, and they shoved me into the ravine. I hadn’t felt the time pass on the ravine floor, but I’d been unconscious for a long time. It was a day later, maybe two—I wasn’t sure of the precise time—when the teleportation circles and communication tablets had stopped glowing. That was what had clued Eris and Roxy into the fact that something was terribly wrong, and they’d come to the Superd Village to meet up with me. They’d guessed that the magic circles at the Superd Village would have ceased to glow too, but they trusted that I was still active. They decided to see how things played out. It was Sandor, who’d come straight back, who told them I was missing. He organized a search party with Ruijerd and the others to find me, which was when they’d discovered that Dohga had gone into the ravine after me. Sandor decided then to leave me to Dohga and stay on the alert for the enemy’s attack. Reason being the information he’d gotten from his informant had gotten him anxious. The informant told him a totally baseless rumor that the devils in the forest were the Superd, and they’d murdered everyone in the surrounding area. Based on the rumors, the kingdom was mustering a hunting party. “I see… Right…” Backing up Sandor’s information was the report from Eris and Roxy. They had only arrived yesterday. That distance should have been only a four-day journey, but it took ten days. They’d been held up by a huge ceremony in the capital they had to push their way through. It was the departure ceremony for the hunting party. The decision to hunt the Superd had broken out into a kind of festival, and I guess they decided to hold the departure ceremony a little early, in the midst of the festivities. Page 26 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Strictly speaking, it shouldn’t have been held until a little later. Geese probably got the news that I’d been tossed into the ravine and set things in motion ahead of schedule. When Orsted’s bracelet came off, that had alerted the Man-God to my survival, so maybe he’d wanted a speedy attack on Orsted before I got out of the ravine. Roxy and Eris had done some recon work around the too-early departure of the hunting party, and confirmed that the Sword God and the North God had joined during that. As they did their recon, however, the two of them couldn’t shake some questions: I was supposed to have negotiated with the kingdom, so how had things ended up like this? Where had I disappeared to? Then, before they knew what was happening, the hunting party had set off from the capital. They followed anyway, keeping a close watch. They knew where the party was headed, but they thought maybe they could learn something. When they reached the Second City, Roxy suggested that further pursuit was too dangerous. They gave the town a wide berth then traveled through the forest, heading for the Superd Village. After that, they got lost—understandable—and wasted a few days. They arrived safely at the village in the end. So here we were. Oh yeah, apparently Eris and Ruijerd had an emotional reunion when she arrived back at the Superd Village. The moment Eris laid eyes on him, she’d been struck by the urge to pounce. I suppose she was consumed by the desire for him to see how strong she’d gotten. She managed to hold herself back. She wasn’t a child anymore. Ever since Ruijerd had recognized her as a warrior, Eris Greyrat had been a warrior. So as not to embarrass herself, she had to behave in front of her mentor. Telling herself this, she assumed her usual pose and said, “It’s been a while! You look the same as ever, Ruijerd.” “Hey, Eris,” he replied. “You’ve grown.” “Yeah, duh.” That was the extent of Eris and Ruijerd’s conversation. It was enough to fill Eris with nostalgia and pride. Once, she’d had to look up at Ruijerd, but now, they stood eye to eye. In battle, she could fight alongside him. Eris told me all this with a smug look on her face. “We don’t have much time left. The hunting party is probably heading this way as we speak, and I expect it won’t be long until the Ogre warriors join them.” Page 27 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“Okay. Right, here’s my report.” I told them how the two soldiers had been the Sword God and the North God, using the same rings that I had to disguise themselves. Geese was probably disguising himself in the same way and that was why we couldn’t find him. I also told them that I’d fallen into the ravine, but the Atofe Hand and Dohga had gotten to me in the nick of time and saved me. I told them that when I fell, Orsted’s bracelet had come off…and the Man-God had seen me. I finished with our escape from the ravine and ensuing return to the village. “Rudeus,” Eris said when I was done, her voice low, “I’ll kill Gall Falion.” She was staring at the point where my arm met my body. “…Well, that is one option, but let’s discuss it. I’m happy you want to avenge me, but I don’t want you charging off alone, or you’ll end up like I did.” Okay, let’s recap. First, Geese was definitely in a position where he could manipulate the hunting party. The most likely scenario was that he’d disguised himself as the king. I didn’t know who the disciples were, but Geese had the Sword God, the North God, and the Ogre God on his side. The Sword God and the North God had scouted out the Superd Village using the power of the rings, and the Ogre God had gone with Geese to mount an assault on the office, robbing us of any place to run. Now, they were with the other hundred or so members of the hunting party, heading for the Superd Village. Ogre God Marta had been sent to Sharia. Thinking about it again made my heart sink into despair. “What happened to our house…?” I asked. Roxy looked down and Eris folded her arms. Sandor stroked his chin, looking troubled. “The Ogre God may have just destroyed the office and then left. He might have gone on to attack Sharia too, but we have no way to know.” I thought this through. What would I have done? Right now, no one was in Sharia. No Rudeus, no Orsted. There wasn’t a single person there who could stand up to the Ogre God. No way would he have just left it. Even if I didn’t have the firepower, I’d probably attack anyway, just for the hell of it. The room was silent. I got the feeling Orsted was glowering too. I couldn’t know for sure because of the helmet, but he always glowered. “Dear me! I’m missing the gathering!” There was a voice from the Page 28 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
entrance. I looked around, and there he was. “Zanoba!” Right, he’s here too. No—I didn’t forget about him! Of course I didn’t! I just, um, I had my family to worry about! “Sorry I’m late, Master. We just arrived.” “No, it’s all good. I only just got here.” I saw Julie and Ginger behind Zanoba. They were beat up. There were scrapes all over them and exhaustion had put dark shadows under their eyes. It looked like their magic was nearly exhausted. “We had some trouble with invisible beasts along the way, you see. If the Superd had not come to our aid, we would have been in grave peril.” Page 29 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
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“You don’t say. Okay, let’s have those two lie down… Wait, no, you should tell us what you know first. You can sit in the corner and rest,” I said. Without a word, Ginger and Julie tottered off into the hall and sank down next to a pillar. Roxy ran over immediately to cast healing magic on them. “Okay, Zanoba. How much do you know about what’s happening?” “The gist of it. I’d be grateful if you could explain it to me from the beginning.” So with that, I explained. It was honestly annoying going through the same stuff again, but it had to be done. The important thing was for all of us to be on the same page. “—and so, our concerns now are the hunting party coming this way, and what happened in Sharia.” When I finished, Zanoba gave a snort of laughter. I didn’t recall saying anything funny. Surely, he wasn’t thinking something like “Well, my whole family is safe here! Hahaha!” He wasn’t like that. “How interesting. On the way here, I found a monument to the Seven Great Powers, so I had Perugius’s servant Master Arumanfi confirm some things.” “Ohh!” Standing up with a joyful smile was not me but Sandor. He looked around the hall, then sat straight back down again. “Excuse me. And?” “He said your family is safe, Master.” Relief settled over the room. Okay. They were safe. Leo must have done his job, or someone else had protected them. Maybe they saw a potential invasion of Sharia on the horizon; it did house the University of Magic, after all. Whichever it was, it was happy news. “If Master Perugius joins our forces, that alone would tip the balance in our favor.” Sandor looked around the hall with mild excitement. Zanoba, on the other hand, looked mildly troubled. “No, Sir Perugius apparently said that he would remain a spectator in this battle. I doubt we can rely on his aid.” “Surely not! This is the sort of situation where he is strongest!” Sandor Page 31 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
exclaimed, recoiling in a way I thought was a bit melodramatic. Did the guy like Perugius that much? No, he was the Second North God. The First North God and Perugius were old allies, back when they’d been the Three Godslayers, which meant Sandor might be acquainted with Perugius. He might even have looked up to him, a man of his father’s generation known as a hero. Setting that aside, Sandor was right. The power of Perugius and his twelve familiars would be especially valuable in a delicate situation like this. There was no better reconnaissance agent than Arumanfi the Bright, and Clearnight of the Roaring Thunder had the ability to share information. Putting just those two together would throw our opponent’s hand open and get all our allies up to speed in an instant. In the legends about Perugius, that was how he’d stripped enemy armies of everything. And that was just the beginning. Between all his familiars, they had powers that could cover every eventuality. If he said he wouldn’t help us, though, then that was that. Orsted’s policy was to not take help from Perugius, anyway. Suddenly, Orsted spoke. “Ogre God Marta might be rough, but he is decent. He wouldn’t attack non-combatants. If it had been Gall Falion or North God Kalman III, they would have attacked Sharia.” His voice was soft, but it carried well. There was a bit of an echo, maybe because of the helmet. “Geese, however, is a coward. Through those other two, he confirmed that I was here. Because there was a teleportation circle, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that I might return to the office. Thus, he sent Ogre God Marta. Even for me, it would take some time to defeat the Ogre God. In the meantime, Geese—or some ally of his—went around breaking the magic circles. He may have planned this from the start.” So that was Orsted’s theory. Geese only brought the Ogre God along as a safety net. That safety net had protected my family. Then…he might not have meant to attack Sharia in the first place. I came first. My family came later. Sandor chimed in with a question. “Then why didn’t all three of them go?” “I believe that is because the goals of Gall Falion and North God Kalman III differ from Geese’s.” The goals of the Sword God and the North God? At this, everyone looked confused. Well, everyone except Eris. “…Because Gall Falion wants to fight you, right?” she said. Page 32 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
“As does Alexander Rybak.” Orsted was in the Superd Village. The Sword God and the North God knew that, which was why they’d stayed behind rather than go to Sharia. From that, I got the sense that Geese didn’t entirely have those two under his control. They could have climbed down to the floor of the ravine and killed me if that was what they were after. I mean, even North Emperor Dohga had done it. The North God and Alexander could have. They weren’t doing what Geese and the Man-God wanted from them. “Well, I know my family is safe, so that’s a relief at least. Though I can’t really be relieved when the Sword God, the North God, and the Ogre God are about to attack us.” Three God-tier warriors, plus another hundred in the hunting party. On the Superd side, there were fewer than twenty warriors who could fight, plus the folk here. Orsted, Zanoba, Ginger, Julie, Norn, Cliff, Elinalise, Ruijerd, Roxy, Eris, Sandor, and Dohga. The Superd women and children, along with the medical team, were staying in the village. The medical team was one thing, but the hunting party had its sights on the Superd. If they breached the village, all of them could end up dead. Ginger, Julie, and Norn weren’t fighters. Cliff…wouldn’t be much help in a fight either. As for Orsted, he wouldn’t fight either. He was practically incapable of recovering mana, and his max amount went down as he used it. I’d become his follower to compensate for that. I couldn’t ask him to take over just because there was going to be a fight. Tossing him onto the battlefield as a last resort meant putting him up against not one, not two, but three God-tier warriors together. He’d have to burn through a ton of mana. Even if we avoided that, there was still the fact that we didn’t know what Geese looked like. Maybe he still had some backup forces. If I were Geese, I wouldn’t send in any old moron I thought would get brushed off in a head-on fight. I’d give them a surefire plan. Orsted was the queen at the back of the board. Sure, I’d win that exchange if I brought him out, but he’d be taken in the next move. Unless there was nothing else for it, it was better for him to stay back. Three God-tier warriors. Without Orsted, it wasn’t going to be an easy fight. It would be tough…but not so tough that we couldn’t win. We had three strong fighters—Sword King Eris, North God Sandor, and North Emperor Dohga. If I worked with Zanoba and Ruijerd to support them…it wouldn’t be Page 33 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
easy, but whether we fought or fled, it wouldn’t be totally impossible. This all-out battle felt a bit poorly planned for Geese. My allies were all gathered in the Superd Village right now. It would be one thing if he thought I wasn’t here, but when I fell into the ravine, it was revealed to the Man-God that I was alive. I was here, and so was Orsted. Was he really going to try for an allout battle here and now? Ah, right. He’d had Abyssal King Vita. All going according to plan, Geese had meant to use Abyssal King Vita to turn Ruijerd against me. Going off that, he would have tricked me as I arrived unsuspecting in the Biheiril Kingdom, then when the disguised Sword God and North God arrived at the Superd Village with the Ogre God. There would be three God-tiers plus Abyssal King Vita and Ruijerd—a guaranteed knockout. That’d be what he was counting on. Yeah. Going off that, maybe it was fair to say that he now looked like he was down on pieces because I’d outmaneuvered him. Though you could also parse it as sheer luck on my part— I still didn’t know who was a disciple and who wasn’t. The info we had conveyed the same sense that Geese didn’t have Gall Falion and North God Kalman III totally under control. How had Geese gotten them to work for him? If he offered them some conditions that they’d accepted, that would be why they were so desperate to attack. Conditions had come up in our conversation just now. The guys who’d attacked me wanted to fight Orsted. After seeing him, they were ready to fight. Geese had set up that encounter for them. That was it. Continuing that idea, Geese had assumedly sprang into action as soon as he knew I’d fallen into the ravine. He even sped up the departure of the hunting party, the one meant to have set off at the same time as the Ogre warriors. He’d have known that I’d struggle to get out of the ravine and tried to finish things while I was out of the picture. Geese, knowing that I wasn’t dead, hadn’t waited to send off the hunting party to strike a crushing blow at Orsted. He’d been busy while I was out of commission, but so had I. I got back before the battle began, and things had settled into place. It was possible that he’d realized Sandor’s identity. Also, going off how harried the Man-God had seemed… “…This might be our shot at victory,” I said under my breath. Just then, a youth came into the hall. He was carrying a white spear—a Superd warrior. “The hunting party has come. They are half a day away.” I’d made it back in time, but only just. Page 34 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
*** The Ravine of the Earthwyrm. It was, on average, four hundred meters across. At its widest, it extended to over five hundred meters, but at its narrowest, it was only around a hundred meters. The Superd had suspended a bridge over the narrowest point and used it to come and go from the forest. They crushed up and smeared herbs that repulsed the Invisible Wolves all over it. Our enemies were many, but this was their only way through. Unlike a river, the ravine couldn’t easily be crossed. They would have to stop there. If we took down the bridge, it would buy us more time. Also, unlike in the forest, there were no obstructions there to stop me using the Eye of Distant Sight. That put them within my firing range. “Let’s leave the bridge.” So the bridge stayed. We could bring it down if the hunting party came across it. Once you fell in, it was no picnic getting back up again—I knew from experience—and there were other benefits besides. There wasn’t time to set a trap, but we decided to wait for the enemy here. Right now, we were fielding six players: me, Eris, Ruijerd, Zanoba, Sandor, and Dohga. The six of us would take on the three God-tiers. The Superd warriors would focus mainly on the hunting party. I had something else for Roxy to do, so she’d be stationed at the back. Elinalise and a few of the Superd warriors would be her guard. Cliff and the others would protect the village. It was a pretty traditional battle arrangement, I guess. Warriors on the front line, magicians in the back. We could also send anyone who got injured back to the village to be healed. Speaking of healing, I decided to leave the Atofe Hand where it was for the time being. Right now, our time—as well as the scrolls Roxy and Zanoba had on them—were limited. My new arm seemed to have better specs than my actual arm, so I figured I’d leave it on, then grow my real arms back when the battle was over with. I could use a healing magic scroll when the time came. It was a present from a demon king, so I was going to have some fun with it. *** Page 35 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Half a day later, we were staring down the hundred-strong hunting party across the bridge. Three men stood at the front on the Biheiril Kingdom side. A middle-aged man with a sword at his belt. That was Sword God Gall Falion. He’d already relinquished his title as Sword God to another, and he was seriously getting on in years. His skill with a blade, though? That hadn’t deteriorated. I was proof of that. I hesitated to attach “former” or “previous” to his name lest I let my guard down. Then there was a kid with a giant sword slung on his back—North God Kalman III, Alexander Rybak. He was one of the Seven Great Powers, but his strength was an unknown quantity. Then, standing nearly three meters tall, broad as the trunk of a giant tree and wearing a necklace with what looked like a bell on it and a tiger-striped loincloth, was a red ogre. That was Ogre God Marta. Orsted’s guess was that he hadn’t attacked my family, but we didn’t know for sure. Maybe I ought to thank him for that…but I didn’t plan on it. He’d attacked the office. Which meant grim things for the elf girl on reception. Her name was Fa…Farraris…right? No, wait. Um. Well. It was something like that. Okay, so I hadn’t ever actually remembered her name, but I still wanted to avenge her. “No sign of Geese, huh?” Disappointingly, I didn’t see a monkey face. Was he hiding nearby, or waiting back in the Second City of Irelil? He wasn’t in range of the Eye of Distant Sight, at any rate. That was Geese for you. If he didn’t have things totally under control, he might have decided to throw it in this time and do a runner. I saw scared faces amongst the hunting party as they looked at the Superd warriors with their green hair and white spears. Devils out of fairytales. If we won this battle, I was going to sell Ruijerd pamphlets on every street corner in the Biheiril Kingdom. “There’s nothing to fear!” Unlike the hunting party, the three God-tiers at the front didn’t look scared of the Superd warriors. “We far outnumber them!” Alexander was particularly peppy. He waved his fist in the air, giving a rousing speech to raise morale in a voice loud enough to carry all the way over to us. It was true, the hunting party beat us on numbers, but he was wrong. We were in the forest, and we had the Superd, so we had the advantage. They all drew their swords while glaring at the twenty or so of us across the ravine with open hostility. Then, Alexander pulled the sword from his back. “My name is Alexander Rybak, the Third North God Kalman! Follow me and together we shall have glory!” Page 36 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
With that, Alexander set off running across the suspension bridge, howling. Sandor cried, “Now!” I fired stone cannons from both hands. They flew straight at the base of the suspension bridge, smashing it to pieces. Ruijerd, in front of me, also made his move. He sliced through the vines that supported the bridge with his white spear. “Aaahh!” Everyone watched in amazement as the bridge fell. North God Kalman III went plunging down into the abyss. We all just stared in amazement, even Sandor, who’d given the order. No way. That did not just happen. You’ve got to be kidding me… I mean, he wasn’t coming back from a fall like that. …Well, it was Alexander, so he might. Still, even if he survived, it was going to take him a while to climb up again. “…O-okay, that’s one down?” I said. No one cheered. No one looked angry either. The shock of what had just happened was burned into everyone’s mind. This was our chance! I concentrated magic in my hands. The list of people who could attack right now was pretty damn short. Let’s do it. I raised my left hand to the sky. Sending up a massive surge of mana, I created thunder clouds, then used my right hand to subdue the raging magical energy, compress it, and bring it down. “Lightning!” A crackle of impending thunder rolled in; a bolt of lightning flashed down. My vision went white, then there was a crash. Thunder boomed around us in a full swell. A cloud of dirt rose on the opposite cliff. Flames engulfed the trees, which clattered and cracked as they crashed to the ground. I couldn’t tell how much damage I’d done, but I felt it. I felt it so strongly my hands shook. It was the sense that I’d killed people. I pushed down my nausea, then I concentrated mana in my hands again. “One more shot…” A second after I said it, something came hurtling out of the dust cloud. A red shape. The leap was effortless and at this distance, silent, like it was flying. Its momentum was overwhelming. The red shape closed in at startling speed and made impact. Impact was the only word for it. There was a bang and a cloud of smoke like a cannonball. Page 37 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
A red-skinned ogre, and a forty-something-year-old human: Ogre God Marta and the former Sword God Gall Falion. They had jumped across the ravine. A hundred-meter-long jump. Seven Great Powers on full display. “Right… Who’s gonna fight me?” He was a grinning wolf. When I’d faced off against him last, he’d seemed a bit dopey. This was different. This was a battle with mortal stakes. At his belt, housed in its resplendent scabbard, was a sword. Probably magic. This wasn’t like the one the armor had stopped. I felt cold sweat trickling down my back. “That’s me.” Stepping forward like it was a foregone conclusion came a red-haired mad dog. She had two swords at her hips. She folded her arms and placed herself imposingly in front of Gall Falion. “Yeah, that figures. Who else?” “Me,” I said. Gall Falion scoffed. “Well, well! Looking good for a dead man.” “Alive and kicking, actually.” “Tch-hah. I told you we should’ve cut his head off,” he muttered. Who was this bad temper directed at…? Geese, I suppose. There was one more of us. He didn’t say his name, but beside me stood a brave, battle-hardened warrior with green hair and a white spear in his hand. Three of us reunited. Eris, Ruijerd, and me. The three of us were going to fight together. Dead End was back. It was three-on-one, but I didn’t see anyone complaining. The plan had been for me and Sandor to fight Alexander, but then the kid went and screwed himself over with that dumbass move. Sandor, Zanoba, and Dohga would take the Ogre God, who focused on hand-to-hand combat. Zanoba and Dohga were crazy strong against powerhouse-type characters. Sandor, North God Kalman II, was also supposed to have experience fighting big enemies. They were the perfect combo. They could win. We might lose someone along the way, but even so. We could beat these two. “Hyup!” In that moment, I heard a shout from behind us. I spun around just in time to see something fly up from the cliff—not something. It was a black-haired kid. The one who’d literally just now fallen into the ravine. Breathing hard, he mopped his brow and lifted his sword high into the air. Then, like he was in a theater production, he proclaimed, “I am North God Page 38 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Kalman III! I will slay the cursed god of evil, Orsted, and become a hero! Anyone who would stand in my way may challenge me if they dare!” No way…this isn’t happening. Did he run up? From the bottom of the ravine…? To be fair, while it was a cliff, it wasn’t totally vertical. With magic, even I could stop myself on the way down and come straight back up. Or maybe he’d run up from the bottom stabbing that sword into the wall as he climbed… That was the Seven Great Powers for you. “…Nothing for it, then,” Sandor said. “Master Rudeus, shall we take this bonehead?” “Yeah.” I nodded at him. I was disappointed I couldn’t fight with Eris and Ruijerd, but oh well. Back to the original plan. “Watch out for that sword,” he said. “It’s the strongest in the world.” There was only one sword fit for the North God to wield: the legendary greatblade, forged after the defeat of the Monarch of the King Dragons. Kajakut, the King Dragon Blade. The blade’s master, however, was gaping at us, sword still raised. “… Why?” he demanded. “Why are you here?” The voice of North God Kalman III, Alexander Rybak, trembled as he looked at me. Oh ho ho. Is it that surprising to see that I survived? Never mind that I was well enough to join the battle? I thought you’d have heard it from Geese, but I guess you didn’t believe it. See, when you don’t see a character die, like when they fall off a cliff, that always means they’re coming back. Wait, what? Is he…not looking at me? Alexander’s gaze was directed behind me. It was Sandor. He was looking at Sandor. Oh, okay. That made more sense. “Dad!” Maybe that shout signaled the battle to begin, or maybe it was just a question of timing. “Ruooaaaah!!!” The next thing I knew, Ogre God Marta swung his arms up and brought them crashing into the ground, roaring a battle cry. The ground thrust up, the cliff crumbled, and a row of trees toppled. I let the impact carry me along, and thus the battle began. Page 39 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com